The Twins almost got no-hit again, this time by King Felix and the Mariners. Denard Span did manage to scratch out a hit, the Twins' only one. They are bad. I think a big part of that is because all the crappy scrubs they used to call up and somehow became God's gift to baseball - Valencia, Casilla, et al. - are finally playing like scrubs again.

The Wahoos lost in extras to the Rangers.

The Royals defeated the Yanks.

Of course, we know what happened to the Tigers...

Twins_Morneau

05-06-2012, 09:23 PM

Worst record in the majors, and word is ownership is steaming. Gardenhire could be scapegoated very soon, even though its not his fault he's playing with a AA roster.

hawkjt

05-07-2012, 10:14 AM

Gardsy did not get dumb over the last season or so, so this would be an uncharacteristicly knee-jerk move by Twins management.

It is interesting that now that the Twins are rolling in dough,with the new Taj Mahal stadium, they are actually struggling. Maybe operating on a shoestring was part of their successful formula? Or was it that cursed plastic ballpark? Or a temporary blip?

It is a long season,and the Twins usually mount a charge after July 1,so I will hesitate to kick dirt on them yet.

BigHurt3515

05-11-2012, 11:25 PM

Indians lose
Tigers down 8-2 to the A's

hawkjt

05-12-2012, 01:34 AM

Tigers lose.

Go A's,go Red Sox...lets get back in this thing by next week.

Lip Man 1

05-12-2012, 11:15 AM

I think the Metrodome was so bizarre, so unusual that it gave the Twins a significant advantage in half of their games, that coupled with the talent they certainly had in that stretch of time was enough to give them good records.

Lip

vinny

05-12-2012, 10:11 PM

Detroit, Cleveland, and Minny all lost tonight. ****ty night for the AL Central save for the Royals.

Zakath

05-12-2012, 10:46 PM

Detroit, Cleveland, and Minny all lost tonight. ****ty night for the AL Central save for the Royals.

****ty divisions routinely have ****ty nights, and frankly this division blows. It's not surprising that no one in the division is over .500 at home.

hawkjt

05-14-2012, 11:02 AM

New week, same ole story...crappy division.

Tribe 18-16
Tigers 17-17 1.0
Sox 16-19 2. 5

Sox entertain the Tigers for two,starting tonite.
Tigers coming off of a 2-5 road trip to Seattle and Oakland.
Verlander got the win yesterday vs the A's,but had to come out in the 8th with blister problems on his fingers.
Smylie is going tonite,and leads MLB in ERA at 1.something.

Sox have to trip out to LA for two vs the slumping Angels on Wed and Thursday,then back to Chicago for the annual trek to Wrigley on the weekend.

The Tigers are coming off of a great season where they took control in August and blew away the division in September. Fans and analysts expected them to pick up where they left off, esepecially after signig Fielder. But last year, they were undefeated in every game where they held the lead after eight. This year, not so much.

I have heard some say the Tigers "haven't found themselves yet." That may be true, although it's so vague enough statement that it might be meaningless in that it could mean different things to different people. But it is true that Leyland might be managing with the way the team was playing last year and hasn't found what will work this year.

The White Sox could be a team that is coming together in that it is learning how to play under a new manager with a new manager learning how to play the team. All the starting pitchers have had tremendous highs and all but Peavy have had deep lows. Ventura has been accused of staying with his starters too long, but a loss to the Royals could well be atributed to Ventura pulling Humber too early. The bullpen has potential, and it may be a matter of Ventura figuring out how to manage it. But if you look at the Tigers, Leyland hasn't been any more successful managing his.

I don't know that it's a crappy division. It has the least amount of wins in the league, but I don't know that a couple of teams in the division won't find themselves and start winning more.

BigHurt3515

05-17-2012, 03:46 PM

Those damn Indians keep winning. Scoring 3 in the 8th inning and then winning in extras
But the Tigers lost to the Twins

TDog

05-18-2012, 12:33 AM

Those damn Indians keep winning. Scoring 3 in the 8th inning and then winning in extras
But the Tigers lost to the Twins

The Mariners are undefeated against the Tigers and winless against the White Sox and Indians. I really thought the Mariners had today's game, though. The starter the White Sox knocked out early in the first game in Seattle shut down the Indians offense, even though he's a righty. The bullpen blew it though. And even after the Mariners grabbed the extra-inning lead, the Indians came back to win it. This has not been a good year for closers.

It seems odd that the Royals won two games in Texas after winning the last two in Chicago, but they came home to be swept by the Orioles. They're still ahead to the Twins, who won two games in Detroit this week.

I wonder if Tigers fans are angry that the Tigers were swept at home by a last-last place team. And today the deciding run scored on a sacrifice fly after an error put a runner on third.

hawkjt

05-18-2012, 09:34 AM

These relievers like the M's League,sometimes cannot throw strikes. He came in to close the game with the one run lead and he proceeds to walk 3 Indians and then give up two hits.

The Tribe are hot right now,just like last year when they raced out to the top of the division....hard to trust that they will maintain this all year,but Lowe has certainly given them another arm to help carry their starting staff. Big pickup. Their offense is good. Their closer has been pretty good. If they get starting pitching...maybe this is their year after all? Long way to go.

BigHurt3515

05-18-2012, 08:53 PM

Indians finally lose and the Sox pick up a game

hawkjt

05-18-2012, 09:37 PM

Verlander's no-no goes away with one out in the 9th.
Tigers beat Pirates 6-0....breaking their losing streak.

AL rules again tonite,as usual.

TDog

05-19-2012, 12:56 AM

Verlander's no-no goes away with one out in the 9th.
Tigers beat Pirates 6-0....breaking their losing streak.

AL rules again tonite,as usual.

Verlander has given up three hits in his last two starts, although he only pitched 7 Sunday in Oakland.

It would have been nice to see more NL teams win so the White Sox could pick up more ground. The Tigers get six games against the Pirates, though. The Pirates may end up facing Verlander twice this year. This is where the home-home rivalry series doesn't help the White Sox or the Indians. The Tigers also get three with the Cubs, and the Cubs aren't a cross-town rival they are for the White Sox, just the team that beat them the last time they went to the World Series 67 years ago.

hawkjt

05-19-2012, 10:15 AM

Now, I understand the whole ''throw out the records'' aspect of the Sox-Cubs series,but at least the Pirates do have a better record than the Cubs,so the Tigers could cite that as a schedule edge for the Sox,except that the Tigers also get 3 with the Cubs.:D:

The Sox have the best record in inter-league play since 2005,and 2nd best overall behind the Yanks. I know the Cubs play the Sox tough,but the Sox have won the overall series for 6 straight years, so,overall, I cannot really complain much about the whole inter-league concept visa vi our Sox. We hold our own.

Railsplitter

05-19-2012, 10:43 AM

Just how bad are the Twins? It's not quite one fourth of the way trough the season, but they could run off a ten game winning streak and still be below .500 at the end of it.

I don't know the details, it seems thier vaunted farm system is starting to let them down.

If the Sox don't win every series they play against these guys from here on in, there's something wrong with the Sox.

TDog

05-19-2012, 03:13 PM

Now, I understand the whole ''throw out the records'' aspect of the Sox-Cubs series,but at least the Pirates do have a better record than the Cubs,so the Tigers could cite that as a schedule edge for the Sox,except that the Tigers also get 3 with the Cubs.:D:

The Sox have the best record in inter-league play since 2005,and 2nd best overall behind the Yanks. I know the Cubs play the Sox tough,but the Sox have won the overall series for 6 straight years, so,overall, I cannot really complain much about the whole inter-league concept visa vi our Sox. We hold our own.

The city/region rivalry series -- Cubs-Sox, Indians-Reds, Twins-Brewers, Royals-Cardinals -- have always to be more competitve than records might indicate compared with other interleague series. But in the end, it might not make that much difference. Last year the Tigers were 7-11 against the NL and the White Sox, with the rivalry games against the Cubs, were still 11-7. Actually, the Indians and White Sox were the only AL Central teams with winning records against the AL last year.

Verlander, though, is pretty much unbeatable in games against the NL in May and June.

hawkjt

05-20-2012, 02:43 AM

Tigers Smyly is coming back to earth a bit lately...Sox lit him up,and today the Pirates centerfielder hit him for two homers.
Tigers lose...Sox win...Sox move into 2nd place...good day.

vinny

05-23-2012, 09:30 PM

Toons beat the Kitties again. Lister getting **** for run support his last four starts - he's gotten only 5 runs in total over those games and allowed 6.

SoxSpeed22

05-23-2012, 09:49 PM

The Tribe will be around all year.

SteveFakeBlood

05-23-2012, 10:21 PM

I'm glad I caught tonight's game rather than last night's- but it's kind of jaw-dropping how quickly the Twins went from a perennial playoff contender (2010) to one of the definitive worst teams in baseball (2011-12).

I guess it makes sense when you look at the possible logical explanations for this:
1) Morneau hasn't been the same player since his concussion in 2010
2A) Joe Mauer returning to Earth from a three time batting champion and MVP to simply an above average hitter being paid over $20 million a year.
2B) The massive investment in Mauer meant the departure of consistently solid hitters like Cuddyer and Kubel who still had something left in the tank. [ Willingham is a good replacement for one of them, but they may have lost some mystical team chemistry dynamic with those two departing...)
3A) Being on the losing end of the Matt Garza for Delmon Young trade, which robbed their rotation of a consistent starter for years to come in exchange for one very good season for Young before his career imploded.
3B) Lacking the consistent ace since Johann Santana left that Garza could've been and Liriano hasn't been able to be.
4) Being unable to replicate the "piranha" spark of overachievers like Bartlett and Punto into guys like Valencia, Plouffe and Casilla.
5) They won the division in 2010 because a number of players overachieved with Mourneau out.

Anyway, there's probably another half a dozen reasons the formula's not working anymore- but the Twins are toothless on offense, can't catch the ball are fundamentally unsound, don't have a lot of speed (other than Span and Casilla- but Casilla's irrelevant since he can't get on base at a reasonable clip) and can't pitch (dead last in the AL in ERA). It's seemingly the opposite of the Twins teams that broke our hearts almost every year in the '00s. It's almost scary and hard to believe they really are this bad, sort of like in a slasher movie where you think the killer is dead and out of nowhere he comes back to life to kill more people. I really hope it's not a false sense of security and we can actually kick them when they're down rather than failing to take advantage of a suddenly putrid team.

~ Steve

hawkjt

05-24-2012, 01:25 AM

Twins have been bad,but coming into tonites game they had won 5 of 6,so the Sox are catching them at their best streak of the season.

This is baseball...the worsr team still win over 45% of their games,so I am not crowing about how bad they are til the Sox have gone like 14-4 against them.

Their starting pitching is in shambles with Baker,Blackburn,Pavano and Liriano all injured or coming off of injury...not sure about Slowey.

I feel no sympathy towards them....I hate them. I hope they stink all year,cept when they play the Tribe and Tigers.

BigHurt3515

05-24-2012, 01:08 PM

The Tigers are becoming more and more overrated every day.
Could use a win out of them against the Indians

dwitt76

05-24-2012, 01:30 PM

Cleveland completes the sweep over Detroit. Verlander complete game 2-1 loss. Hopefully sox can bring the indians back to earth this weekend.

hawkjt

05-24-2012, 01:37 PM

Tribe is red-hot. They are 8-2 since they put Choo in batting leadoff.

Just watched the last 2 innings on MLB....Verlander clearly pissed off as he goes out down 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th. Faces Choo,Kipnis,and Cabrera....strikes them out on 11 pitches...breakdown..

Sox play KC and the Twins a bunch over the next 4 months. They must get a handle on these two nemisis.

The Tribe are for real,imo. Good hitting team. Good back end of bullpen,altho Chris Perez is not modeling his on mound behavior after Valverde of the Tigers from last year...hope it catches up to the prick,Perez soon. He is going to have a ton of enemies in his division by August...add KC to the list after todays antics. Sox already are out for him with Alex leading the pack. I suspect the Tigers and Twins will join the club soon.

Sox play KC and the Twins a bunch over the next 4 months. They must get a handle on these two nemisis.

The Tribe are for real,imo. Good hitting team. Good back end of bullpen,altho Chris Perez is not modeling his on mound behavior after Valverde of the Tigers from last year...hope it catches up to the prick,Perez soon. He is going to have a ton of enemies in his division by August...add KC to the list after todays antics. Sox already are out for him with Alex leading the pack. I suspect the Tigers and Twins will join the club soon.
Not tonight, baby! :bandance:

:indianslose:

Tragg

05-29-2012, 09:25 PM

KC isn't bad. I think the'll win 75-82 games. That 12 game losing streak put them in a hole, but over .500 otherwise.
You just can't lose to the Twins and expect to win this division. You just can't. It's got to be a 15-3 sort of pounding of them.

vinny

05-30-2012, 02:39 PM

KC beats the Tribe again.

DonnieDarko

05-30-2012, 02:44 PM

KC beats the Tribe again.

Absolultey lovely! If we hang on today, we'll have a 1.5-game lead.

Moses_Scurry

05-30-2012, 09:25 PM

The Tigers are only 1.5 games ahead of the Royals, just as am FYI.

The Immigrant

05-30-2012, 11:05 PM

Fister to the DL.

TDog

05-31-2012, 12:28 AM

The Tigers are only 1.5 games ahead of the Royals, just as am FYI.

I believe the Tigers have the league's worst record since they jumped out to their 9-3 start.

Frater Perdurabo

05-31-2012, 06:17 AM

I believe the Tigers have the league's worst record since they jumped out to their 9-3 start.